We headed up to Utah over spring break. We were in for a bit of surprise on our way up to Flagstaff: Snow! And not just a little snow, but enough snow that multiple highways were closed and it was looking like our only way to Hanksville, Utah would be via Las Vegas which would add a lot of time. There was some back and forth on roads but thankfully I-17 reopened before we got too far towards Vegas and we were able to go through Flagstaff and up through the Navajo Nation to Hanksville.
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Snow as we approach Flagstaff.
Megan: Oh my gosh! It's a snowplow.
Matthew: I've never seen a snowplow before.
Exciting times for our kids! |
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| We drove through the stunning Monument Valley. |
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| We stopped at Goosenecks State Park. It is an example of an entrenched river meander. |
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| U, Me, Megan and Matthew |
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| Mexican Hat |
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| It started lightly snowing as we drove up the Moki Dugway. The road wasn't as bad or scary as we thought it might be based on reviews. |
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| U, Megan and Me |
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| Matthew preferred to stay in the car. |
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| Me at the top of the Moki Dugway. There was a nice view over the valley. |
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| The drive around Hite was absolutely gorgeous! |
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| U and Me at the Hite Overlook |
We ate dinner after arriving in Hanksville. The kids thought it was a very small town. They were not wrong.
The next morning, we headed out to Goblin Valley State Park. It was really cool to see the hoodoos; the kids even picked out a mom hoodoo. We definitely enjoyed our time there. We ended up walking around 5 miles in the state park.
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| Megan, Me and Matthew heading out into Valley 1. |
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| Matthew walked farther than the rest of us as he did a lot of climbing of the hills. It was nice to be able to explore. |
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| Matthew, Megan and Me |
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| Nice view of some of the many hoodoos in Valley 2, where we spent most of our time. |
Here are a bunch of pictures from our exploration.
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| Matthew |
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| Matthew |
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| U and Me |
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| Matthew |
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| Matthew |
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| Megan |
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| Me, Megan and Matthew |
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| Matthew |
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| Me and Megan |
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| Matthew |
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| U waving from the top of a hill while Matthew climbs |
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| Megan |
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| Matthew holding down the contrails while Me holds them up and Megan observes. |
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| Matthew |
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| Me |
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| Matthew |
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| Oh good! Now we know where we are... |
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| View into another valley. |
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| View of part of Valley 2. |
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| U, Matthew, Megan and Me with Valley 2 behind. |
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| Another view into the Valley beyond Valley 2. |
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| U |
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| This hoodoo looks a bit like Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon. |
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| Looks like people hugging. |
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| Matthew and Me decided to venture into the valley beyond Valley 2. Can you spot them? |
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| Zoomed in a bit. |
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| The ground has interesting patterns on it. |
We decided to eat lunch at this spot and all posed for pictures.
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| Matthew |
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| Me |
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| U and Megan |
After lunch, we were debating whether to continue to explore Goblin Valley. Based on descriptions we'd read online, we thought that perhaps we had made it to Valley 3. However, this sign proved otherwise. (And we are pretty sure the online descriptions were incorrect.)
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| Matthew, Me and Megan with the Valley 2 sign. |
We headed further back into the park.
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| Me over an arch and Matthew under it. |
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| One of the many interesting rocks Megan collected. |
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| Matthew |
Couple views into Valley 3, which is ginormous!
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| Megan, Me and Matthew on the way back. |
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| Matthew is back in the saddle. |
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| lizard |
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| Me, Matthew and Megan with the sign indicating the way we had just come was the way to Valley 3. |
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| 3 Sisters hoodoo |
We then headed to Little Wild Horse Canyon. It was a really cool slot canyon!
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| U looks like he needs to drink some V8! |
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| Or maybe the rock is slanted...(he wanted the above picture. It does look cool!) |
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| Lots of cool patterns in the sandstone. |
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| Megan, Matthew and Me heading into some of the narrow section. |
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| Matthew needs some V8 too. |
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| U, Matthew, Me and Megan |
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| Imprints from dragon talons. |
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| Little swirly area. |
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| Getting pretty narrow! Megan is in the distance. |
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| Matthew and U |
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| It was fun to squeeze through the narrow sections. |
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| Matthew holding up a boulder. We enjoyed the rock scrambling over obstacles and inclines. |
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| Me and Megan at the top of an incline. |
A couple more pictures of the slot canyon.
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| Megan coming out the other end. |
We ended up hiking around 5 miles in Little Wild Horse Canyon for about 10 miles of hiking! Certain members of the family may have thought it was a bit much. We then headed into Torrey where we ate at Capitol Burger.
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